This application relates to lasers including mode-locked lasers.
Wavelength-tunable femtosecond pulsed fiber lasers around the 1 μm wavelength region provide a promising alternative to Titanium:Sapphire lasers operating in the same spectral region in part because of the compact size, good stability, and maintenance free operation of such pulsed fiber lasers. Advances in optical power amplifier technology based on Yb-doped cladding-pumped fibers allow for the power scaling capability of the femtosecond pulsed fiber lasers at 1 μm to well match or even exceed that of Titanium:Sapphire lasers and other laser technologies. For example, high power Yb-doped fiber amplifiers reaching an average output power up to several hundred watts are now commercially available and can be used to amplify output of wavelength-tunable femtosecond pulsed fiber lasers.
One technical issue associated with pulsed fiber lasers and optical amplifiers based on doped fiber gain media is optical dispersion which causes undesired pulse broadening.